Shelby Co. authorities say dog responsible for attacks on livestock

A Shelby County mystery has been solved. Test results show what kind of animal has been viciously attacking livestock in Waddy.

So far, eight animals have either been killed or injured in Waddy over the past five months. There has been a lot of speculation about what it could be. There are even T-shirts going around saying theres a werewolf in Waddy. But it turns out those attacks were all by a dog.

"I went out the next morning to feed my calves and I noticed one of the Holstein bulls had blood on it," said Kevin Cox, whose animals were attacked.

"Their faces were gone from their eyes down. Their ears had been ripped off," said Teresa Parker, whose animals were attacked.

Attack after attack on Ditto Road left people in Waddy questioning what was wreaking havoc on their livestock.

The issue got so serious, Shelby County Animal Control sent a saliva sample to California, and it just got those results back.

"Those results say that it was a domestic dog that caused the attack," said Rusty Newton, director of Shelby County Animal Control.

"Is it common for a domestic dog to attack animals like this?" WLKY's Jessica Oh asked him.

"It's common. Well, it's not really common, but it does happen," said Newton.

Animal Control always suspected it could be a dog, but there were certain characteristics about the attacks that kept them puzzled.

"Once they were killed, they were not eaten, just left for dead. To me that indicates that we have an animal out there that is being fed, just not doing it because he's hungry, just doing it for sport," said Newton.

Even though they now know a dog is to blame, they haven't forgotten that it's still on the loose, only now they know it's likely someone's pet.

"It's been a top priority for Animal Control," said Newton.

Animal Control said all it can basically do now is wait for possibly another attack to happen in hopes of finding that dog.

The latest attack happened a few weeks ago.

Animal Control does not know what kind of dog is responsible for the attacks.

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